Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
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Well! It seems like I’ve been reincarnated as a spider. This sucks, but they do say that the first step towards solving a problem is admitting that problem exists. Step two: figure out what to do about it.
Crunch!
Disturbing noises snap me out of my thoughts. Ah, that’s right, I’m still in trouble; better not lose track of reality. I’m still surrounded by an army of spiders (my siblings, I guess?), and now they’re making strange sounds that I can’t quite identify. I slowly turn back around to face them.
Crunch! Munch!
Wha?! What are they doing?! They’re eating? They’re eating each other?! Cannibalism! Before my eyes, my spider siblings engage in a gruesome battle for survival! This is bad! This is very bad! Brothers, sisters, why do you fight?
Ah, but it’s food. It’s food, and I’m hungry. To be quite honest, I’m probably about as hungry as these guys, and food is food…
Wait, no! I mustn’t lose sight of reality again. I am but a pure, innocent young maiden! If I were to throw myself into that battle, surely I would be instantly ravaged by those men’s evil intentions! …Well, it’s a metaphor, but the meaning is clear.
Fight
Items
Escape ←
It’s times like these when one must withdraw. Me? Fight? Impossible. I’ve always been the quiet type who goes straight home after school, so thinking about diving in to such a violent crowd is insane! Even if I’m a spider just like those guys, I’m not going to jump in there. Yeah, if I’ve got time to think about such impossible things, I’ve got time to start running away.
Thud.
A tremor from behind me ripples through the ground. Now what?! I turn around to see what new trouble I’m in. Towering over us all is an enormous spider. Is this Mother? (Or is it Father?) Mother, why are you so enormous? Aren’t you far too large to exist? If spiders that were as large as you existed anywhere on Earth, wouldn’t I have heard about it?
With a crunch, the giant spider spears one of my siblings with the mighty claw on her foreleg, then pops it into her mouth like a potato chip. Mother, no! Must you do such cruel things to us as well?
I have to get out of here. The time for thought is over, the time for action is now. Escape, find shelter, survive. GO!
I fled as fast as I could, not stopping until my legs gave out and I could no longer hear the sounds of carnage behind me. Now, looking around, it doesn’t seem like anyone from the spider army followed me. Good. I seriously thought I was going to die back there. Dying immediately after being born, what a joke.
Now then! I’m not in immediate danger, so let’s sit down and sort out everything I’ve got so far.
I’m a spider now, there’s no doubt about it. I didn’t take my physical fitness very seriously when I was still a human, so there’s no way I could have jumped like I did back there, let alone run along the walls. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to push my way straight through that many spiders.
Seriously, there were way too many spiders. That was like trying to fight my way through a crowd of crazed grandmothers, trying to get the last carton of eggs on discount day at the supermarket. Well, not like I’d ever have done something so reckless to begin with…
Anyhow, while I was escaping from the spider mosh pit, I found myself running along the walls and jumping like a ninja! It was very strange at the time, but despite having eight unfamiliar legs I had no trouble moving exactly the way I wanted to. It looks like my new body has some good basic instincts, which is great. The first good news I’ve had so far!
So, seriously, what was with that super-enormous spider? Was that really one of my parents? I don’t really know much about the ecology of spiders, so maybe there are some spiders that eat their young. Regardless, if that’s my parent, am I going to get that big someday?
…Now that I’ve had a chance to think about it, this might not be so bad after all. Spiders are useful little bugs, right? I could definitely be way more helpful to people now compared to when I was still a human. Wait, isn’t that a sad thought? Shouldn’t that make me sad? Maybe I’m thinking about this too much. Not good, not good…
I guess I might be misrepresenting the huge spider’s true size. After all, it’s only “huge” relative to me, and I don’t really have any way to figure out how small I am. If I’m as tiny as a fingertip, then the big one’s a much more reasonable size than I was originally thinking, probably about the size of a tarantula. On the other hand, if I’m tarantula-sized, then… that spider is bigger than anything that’s ever been discovered on Earth. Come to think of it, it’s not too far-fetched to think that it could be a strange new species; after all, reincarnation is already a pretty fantastical thing so there could definitely be other fantastical things around me. I should probably avoid being too optimistic…
I should verify this. First, let’s try to figure out how small I really am. Is there something around here I could use as a comparison?
I survey my surroundings. It looks like I’m in a pretty big cave. There isn’t very much light at all, but the murky gloom of the cave feels just about right to me. I look around cautiously.
Ah… aha! I’ve found bootprints! An unmistakable trail of bootprints, marked clearly in the earth! Even better: because there are bootprints, there are travelers, and because there are travelers, there are human beings living in this world! This realization brings up such emotions within me that I can hardly contain myself.
…Although, of course, now that I’ve found the bootprints, the… ah, uncomfortable truth is quite plain to see. This discovery is, um, not a very comforting one.
I’m definitely bigger than a footprint.
Yeah.
If I guess that the people who left these tracks were about 170 centimeters tall, then… I’m probably about one meter long, aren’t I.
Ah, yeah. I’ve had this sneaking suspicion ever since I saw that giant spider. No matter how I look at it, I’m definitely not any kind of spider that’s been seen on Earth before. In other words, even in this world that is quite clearly different from Earth, even if the lighting were good, if someone were to look at me, they’d be right to call me a monster!!
Ah, yeah. I’ve had this sneaking suspicion ever since I saw that giant spider, and this confirms it. No matter how I look at it, I can’t be any sort of normal spider that I would have seen on Earth. That means that, even on this world that is quite clearly not Earth, even if one were to put it nicely, it would be very reasonable to call me a MONSTER, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
APM - Translation 